2003 Pinot Noir, Rancho Santa Rosa Vineyard

Awards

Wine Enthusiast 87 points.

"Nice silky, elegant mouthfeel to this wine, with its practically nonexistent tannins but crisp acidity. It's not quite ripe, offering a mélange of cherry tomato, rhubarb and cola flavors in addition to deeper cherry ones, but it has complexity and style."

Production Notes

Pinot Noir clones 115 & 667; 93 cases produced.

Tasting Notes

A classic Pinot Noir that continues to impress as it gains a little bottle age, the 2003 Rancho Santa Rosa first pleases the eye with its beautiful crimson color. Typical of the Rancho Santa Rosa vineyard, a first sniff exhibits aromas of concentrated blueberry and strawberry, with a hint of smoke. Flavors of dried orange peel, earth, mushroom and subtle white pepper then lead to new layers of sweet red cherries, mineral tones and a bit of chalk, which probably originate in the limestone soils of the property. The texture of this wine is beautiful – the silkiness just glides across the palate and leaves a lingering taste in the mouth that goes on and on. Try this wine with a good, dark chocolate! Mouth coating soft tannins, good structure and nice balance suggest that the wine can not only be enjoyed now, but cellared through 2010.

Vineyard Notes

The Rancho Santa Rosa Vineyard is a two hundred and forty acre vineyard planted to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Planted in 1998, Rancho Santa Rosa has been called “Little Burgundy”, referring to the subdivision of the property into thirty-five different parcels. Each parcel is planted to the new Dijon and more traditional Pommard clones, each with appropriate rootstock matched to the soil. The cool morning fog moderates the temperatures in the Santa Rita Hills due to the west-east orientation of the region to the Pacific Ocean.

Winemaker Notes

Clones 115 and 667 were used to make our 2003 vintage, both of which are Dijon clones. As with all of our Flying Goat wines, the fruit was hand harvested once we had determined that it was at its optimal ripeness – acids, sugars and pH all in balance, but more importantly tasting spicy, elegant and interesting. Following an early morning harvest, we de-stemmed the grapes into small open-top fermenters. After inoculation with a cultured yeast, we carefully monitored the fermenting juice and punched the cap of skins back into the juice/wine two or three times a day to gain maximum extraction of colors and flavors and to control the fermentation temperature. Once fermentation was completed, the new wine was gravity racked into a combination of new and older French oak barrels, where it aged for twelve months. Then it was racked once and minimal filtration was employed to capture maximum fruit flavors and aromas.